Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-01-06
4 SUBSTITUTE FOR SUGAR.
How it is Made, and Som thing About Adult
teratiOn.
Cincinnati Enquirer.

CINCINNATI enquirer.
The scientific world is just now inter
ested IN recent discovery by which coal
tar is made into sugar. Tho enter rise
originated in Germany, but is attracting
general attention in this country. DIR, G..
L. Minor, w:o keeps posted on every
thing, was called upon to give some facts
on cOal-tar sugar.
1.-The new substitute for sugar" re-
marked DIR. Minor, lis called saccharine.
and Is really product of coal-tar IL
will add an additional value to the refuse
of gas works. It's discoverer was Fohl-
berg, who formerly lived in the east, but
resides at the present time, / think, in
Hamburg
"Has the new substance been introduced
to commerce."
"Not to any great extent, owing to it's
est, for 1T is worth about $12 per pound.
Yet one pound of saccharine will sweeten
ten thousand pounds of water
How Is 1t prepared for the sugar mar
ket?"
1.-The preparation used in Europe is an
admlxture of glucose and dextrin. One
pound of saccharine will convert two
Thousand pounds of glucose into the very
best grade of ordinary table sugar; that
is, it will resemble table sugar as regards
sweetness without the nutritious qualities
of the real article"
'You don't mean to say that there is no
nutrition in saccharine, doctor?"
eyes; it has little or no nutritious prop
erty, and is merely an adulterant."
SIS it likely that it will ever be used on
a large scale as an adulterant in the
United States?"
"Of course" replied DR.. Minor, when
the process of making the saccharine is
cheapened. would be willing to predict
that every large gas-wOrks in the country
will be selling saccharine as a refuse prin-
ciple in the next twenty years, and that
there will be enough profit in the business
TO make illuminating gas for nothing; in
other words, the present gas-worFs will
be saccharine manufacturing establish
ment, while the refuse will be illuminat-
ing gas. Analine colors and ammonia
salts will be made under the same roof as
the coal tar from which the saccharine is
devolved."
"What is the process of making saccha-
rine, doctor?"
"That question can be answered better
by chemist" said DR.. Minor. sit is
usual, however, to take what is called the
tolut ne in coal-tar and treat this sub
stance with phosphorus pentach-loride:
it is the cost of this other article that
renders the manufacture of sacchariHe so
expensive. Yet, even as expensive as it
is, a quality of sugar can now be manu-
featured even cheaper than New Orleans
cane sugar"
"What will be the result of this new
adulterant?"
sit will cheaper the cost of sweetening
materials in groceries and candies and
will enhance the value of real cane sugar,
just as the price of pure butter has been
increased by that vile adulteration, oleo-
margarine. The working people, who
now pay 213 cents tax on every pound of
sugar they consume, can enjoy glu-
cose, the product of corn, adul-
terated with saccharine, which has no
nutritious qualities. Pure butter, pure
sugar, and pure milk will always cost a
large price, and only be in reach OF the
wealthy. Why, even modern Chicago
lard is now said to be largely made from
cotton-seed oil. This is the age Of adul-
tsration, and about the only pure articles
left to the mass of humanity are plain
bread and water"
''How about coffee and tea, doctor?"
Coffee in the berry unbrowned and
upground can not be initiated, but the
three-fourths of the ground coffees on the
markat are adulterated. As for tea, Cey
Ion is now the great producing coun
try for cheap teas, which are palmed off
in Europe for fine Chinese goods. CeyIon
teas lack much of the theme or active
principle Of tea that is found in the genu-
inc Hong Kong crops"
Returning to the subject of sugar,
doctor, you really think that the future
gas-works will man ufacture saccharine?"
"Gas and sugar are equivalents chemi-
cally and politically" replied the NJ. D.
"Ask the committee on light in the city
council. Good afternoon"